


Some Great Reward

by denatured



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Angst, Bloodplay, Defying Tradition and Expectations, F/M, Female Character of Color, Humiliation, Hurt/Comfort, Kink, Kitchen Sink Drama, Knifeplay, POV Character of Color, Protagonist Has Anger Issues, Smut, South Asian Protagonist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 12:34:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30106038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/denatured/pseuds/denatured
Summary: After a night of gin-fueled indulgence, your paths cross on a subway platform.
Relationships: Joker (DCU)/Reader, Joker/You
Kudos: 3





	Some Great Reward

_Essex Street, Lower East Side, 2:46AM_

You stumble out onto the street, the bright orange lanterns and streetlights spinning against the murky night sky. You can hear howling and raucous laughter from a group of men- _shabab_ \- smoking on the corner. Someone’s spitting swearwords and slamming cash down on a counter at the Dollar Slice. _Yeah_. It’s Essex Street on a Tuesday, and you’re one breath short from vomiting all over your dusty Chuck Taylor’s.

You tug the collar of your parka up to your ears. You never understood how it got so cold after midnight. Gin, lavender, and bile splashed against the back of your throat. You shouldn’t have had so many, as good as they were, as cheap as they seemed. Ah, but it was one of _those_ days. The mind games with the supervisor and the cross-eyed hours of experiments were enough to make anyone drink themselves into a stupor- so why couldn’t you?

A native Gothamite of Indian heritage, tall, foul-mouthed, and vicious, you did what you wanted. Well, you did what you could get away with under the gaze of your Muslim-ish parents. You were a first-generation, first daughter: bookish, hungry, and defiant. You mythologized yourself when you drank this much. You hummed and stumbled down the subway stairs and into the underpass. The warm wind whooshed through your thick, short hair. You tucked it behind your ears and dug your hands into your pockets, walking quickly. The underpass at this hour never felt safe.

You never felt safe a day in your red, gold, and brown life. Showered in tradition and stifled by belief, you were inundated with the ideas that sanctity and scholarship were supposed to protect you. _They_ were supposed to protect _you_. It only got you in a world of trouble and developed the most jagged, glimmering chip on your shoulder. Oh, but it gave your character. Everyone loved you, but they couldn't stand you: all of your colorfully violent stories and overintellectual thoughts.

You didn't care for people anyway.

The blue-yellow lights flicked against the tiled walls. You walked through the turn style and paced down another flight of labyrinthian stairs to get to your subway platform.

That’s when you heard him, the staccato tearing through the fabric of your fevered thoughts. You froze.

**Author's Note:**

> Experimental and incomplete- will be updating periodically.


End file.
